M2

 

 (letterboxd.com)

M-1951-Los Angeles is terrorized by a child murderer (David Wayne). The police are baffled. Things get so bad, innocent people are attacked. Two cops (Howard DeSilva and Steve Brodie) investigate as the mayor (Jim Backus) blows his top. The killing of a councilman's granddaughter stirs things up. Mobster Charlie Marshall (Martin Gabel), who's gang includes Raymond Burr, Walter Burke and Norman Lloyd, hatches a plot with a drunken lawyer Langley (Luther Adler) to find the killer themselves because the cops are too close to their operations. They hire bums and other street denizens to comb the streets while the cops interrogate recently released mental patients (William Schallert plays one of them). The pathetic whistling killer collects kids' shoes and plays the flute. His problems seem to stem from his mother. When the killer gets himself trapped in a warehouse with a little girl, the gang goes in and gets him (a kind of ridiculous scene). 

The finale is an interesting mock trial where Langley turns the tables on Marshall. Not a bad remake of the classic German thriller (from 1931) with solid acting, by Jospeh Losey (THE BOY WITH THE GREEN HAIR (1948)) who was soon after blacklisted and fled to England.

Thanks for reading!